


kill it on the exhale

by friday



Category: SHINee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2093829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friday/pseuds/friday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Image control is Kibum's least favorite part, even when he is not the one in trouble. Alternatively: Two and a Half Scandals SHINee Has Been Involved With.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kill it on the exhale

They all get to attend a new round of image control sessions when the paparazzi pictures of Jinki and Jungah leak. Jonghyun, of all of them, is exempt.

“That’s not fair,” Kibum grumbles. Image control is his least favorite, mostly because it usually involves all of them in an uncomfortable, tense room with their manager and publicist, who alternate, depending on who is bad cop and who is good cop that day, between sighing heavily in disappointment and lecturing them on their duties and responsibilities. Kibum, whose image apparently constantly needed control, has had to go to so many of these sessions that both manager and publicist tended to skip the sighing and go straight to the lecturing.

“I’ve already paid my dues,” Jonghyun says cheerfully, though not without a bite at the end. He wiggles his fingers at them as they file glumly out of practice and watches them go with the supreme satisfaction of someone who now has first, and only, dibs on an hour-long shower.

“You mean you fucked up first,” Kibum points out, only a little meanly.

“Potato, potato.” Jonghyun’s smile broadens to eclipse the bitterness, reaching out to flick his towel at the back of Taemin’s knees as he passes.

 

-

 

The fallout is not nearly as bad as it could be, all things considered.

Two mutual statements of denial and one giyeomi player later, the machine of popular opinion creaks back towards a sense of general benevolence for Jinki. It’s a little more complicated than that, of course, but by all means Jinki is lucky. His diehard fans, always the most trusting of their oppa out of all of their fans, fold the easiest, wanting to believe it the most, and it’s all smooth sailing from there.

“That’s not fair,” Jonghyun complains, all of them knowing full well the management hell he’d fought through just to be able to hold Sekyung’s hand in public.

“It’s still not easy,” Jinki snaps back, fiddling with the ring on his finger. He’d been carefully and pleasantly blank-faced as he received his punishment, the only sign of emotion a spasm of annoyance when it was decided, unanimously, that the strategy would be, of course, to deny, deny, deny.

They are back in their dorm, Jinki and Jonghyun on opposite ends of the couch, both watching the evening news with pinched faces. Taemin and Minho had escaped to their respective rooms the minute they’d gotten back, making excuses so they wouldn’t have to be caught in the crossfire.

Kibum, out of some weird masochism, sticks around. He slouches at the desk, checking their fancafes and his email, trying to pretend he’s not listening too closely as he pats lotion on his face.

“I’m just saying,” Jonghyun’s voice is louder now, a hum of resentment behind it all. “What’d you expect?”

“Nothing,” Jinki says, passing a hand over his face, sounding tired now. “It’s the things they say about her. You know that.”

Jonghyun falls silent at that, and doesn’t say anything even when Jinki stands up to turn off the TV, saying softly, “I’m going to sleep. You should too.”

He pats Kibum on the shoulder as he passes, a quick, reassuring squeeze. “Night,” Kibum says, aiming for casual but settling for sympathetic.

 

-

 

Whatever Jinki and Jungah’s relationship would have or will come to is inconsequential. It is the frustration of keeping it secret, the worry of discovery, and then the inconvenience of having to handle the inevitable rumors and, in the worst case, the scandal, that looms above all their heads. Jonghyun made it easier, took the fall that one of them would have had to eventually, but there is an unspoken agreement that Jonghyun would have handled it best out of all of them anyway. Charming and open with his affection, Jonghyun was the right age at the right time with the best-possible girlfriend. It’d hurt him, of course, Jonghyun also being the only member who could ever say their fans were his girlfriends with a straight face and make them believe it, but he’d bounced back a little more mature, reputation more bruised than seriously hurt. These days, he and Sekyung still maintained an open-ended friendship.

Kibum didn’t say it when it was Jonghyun and he doesn’t say it when it’s Jinki’s turn, either, but it _is_ unfair. This comes out mostly when he is feeling particularly sorry for himself, when he feels stifled and reckless and needs someone other than SHINee to keep him grounded.

This, unfortunately, gets him in trouble a lot with both his managers and the larger fan community. There’s a reason he’s much more popular overseas, and it’s not the _international style_ and _best at English_ excuses management and his bandmates are quick to trot out.

Kibum doesn’t do it often, but when he does, he mostly reads netizen comments with one eye closed, trying not to let the jabs at his sexuality hurt him too much.

The comments on the latest speculation article about him and Hyungseop, sparked by some Twitter picture neither of them had thought much about are, for example, particularly vicious. Even his own fans defend him with an air of defeat, writing long comments asking detractors to just leave him be, or supporting him. The most loyal point to his interview answers and his friendships to various girl groups members, bless their hearts, as if it was at all likely that he might actually one day meet Chloë Sevigny and conduct the May-December romance of their dreams.

Whether he and Hyungseop are actually dating, or hooking up, or are just friends is not the important part, it’s the talk. It’s his personal style, his love of fashion and girl group dances, and his close friendships with other idol boys, even under the guise of the ’91 line, that are cause for concern. Sometimes Kibum tries to imagine coming out with a boyfriend, whether it is Hyungseop or Woohyun or even Jonghyun—always a fan favorite despite the impossible hilarity of it all—and the very thought of it makes him feel so panicked he usually needs to step outside and take a few deep breaths.

So all in all, it is unfair. But even more so, it would be unfair to begrudge Jinki—or Jonghyun or Minho or Taemin—the little bit the pressures they all face are willing to concede. Kibum, always a romantic, has always thought that everyone deserves at least a shot at that.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Angel Haze's Supreme.


End file.
